My personal page...

I earned my undergraduate degree from Tribhuvan University, Nepal in 2015. During my undergraduate studies, my thesis project focused on managing diseases in broccoli to improve seed production. Throughout my undergraduate years, I had the opportunity to explore various crop plants like wheat, rice, cauliflower, chili as well as horticulturally important plants like gladiolus. In 2024, I earned a Ph.D. in Biological Sciences from Louisiana State University where my research focused on leaf development of salt tolerant plant Schrenkiella parvula at different developmental stages using multiomics approaches like transcriptome, metabolome, ionome and different physiological studies to investigate its strategy to manage salt stress at different stage of leaf development. In spring 2025, I joined Dassanayake lab as a Research Associate to further explore Schrenkiella parvula and its relatives from Brassicaceae family at both molecular, transcriptomic and proteomic levels.

After completing my Bachelor's degree at the University of Colombo, Sri Lanka, I began my Ph.D. journey in fall 2021 under the guidance of Dr. Dassanayake. My research is dedicated to exploring the remarkable adaptability of halophytes to high salt. Despite the considerable phylogenetic differences within the halophyte community, these plants share a common adaptive trait of salt tolerance. Therefore, my project aims to uncover genomic traits that have convergently evolved in extremophytes adapted to high salinity comparing >200 angisperm genomes utilizing bioinformatics techniques. Additionally, I am investigating functional responses to high salinity in the model halophyte Schrenkiella parvula, focusing on photosynthesis and responses related to the accumulation of reactive oxygen species. This endeavor not only promises to deepen our understanding of halophyte adaptation but also sheds light on broader questions surrounding adaptive mechanisms in response to environmental stress.

I joined Dassanayake’s lab in 2021 Fall for my Ph.D. program after I finished my undergraduate and MS in Biotechnology at Nong Lam University, Vietnam. During my graduate study, I investigate how plants adapt to environmental stresses using methods in cell biology, genetics, proteomics, metabolomics, transcriptomics, and genomics. Using an extremophyte model, Schrenkiella parvula, I explore genes involved in stress-adapted plants with novel functions regulating stress tolerance absent in crops. I also combine results derived from advanced techniques of confocal microscopy, Raman spectroscopy, mass spectrometry together with RNA-seq data to understand how salt is transported and compartmentalized inside the plants while roots continue to grow and respond to salt stress. These approaches help to uncover the genetic mechanisms underlying metabolic adjustments required for sustained growth under high salinities. Ultimately, my goal is to apply the benefits provided by salt-tolerant plants to enhance crop resilience, thereby providing promising solutions for their cultivation in saline environments in the future

Before I joined Dr. Dassanayake’s lab in Fall 2022, I had previously worked on agricultural crops such as rice, sorghum, maize and foxtail millet at International Rice Research Institute and LSU-Agricultural Center. I finished my BS in Biology and MS in Molecular Biology and Biotechnology at the University of the Philippines. Basically, I have been in plant science research for a while; also, I love plants. Right now, I want to realize my research ideas in understanding plant abiotic stresses for my PhD. Here at Dr. Dassanayake’s lab I will have that opportunity. I will be using brassica extremophyte species using transcriptomic, ionomic and metabolomic studies to understand the physiology, biochemistry and underlying mechanisms of plant abiotic stress tolerance.

I joined Dr. Dassanayake’s lab in the Fall of 2022 as a PhD student. I attained my undergraduate degree at Ohio Wesleyan University in May of 2022. I also completed work at the Boyce Thompson Institute at Cornell for an REU. In the Dassanayake lab, I am working with the halophytes Schrenkiella parvula and Eutrema salsaginium which are considered the experts at adapting to extreme environments such as soil with high salt and low essential nutrients like phosphorus. These stresses have been studied respectively, but often in nature these types of abiotic stresses occur at the same time. Studying extremophyte plants under these conditions  will give insight into how plants are adapted to high salt and low phosphorus conditions combined. I am using a plethora of transcriptomic tools to understand these two extremophytes' responses to complex stresses, and also studying physiological responses to the combined and singular stresses.

I am a Biochemistry major minoring in Physics who joined Dr. Dassanayake’s lab in early 2021 as I found the transformation research they were doing really interesting. Since then I’ve been phenotyping the species Schrenkiella parvula, Eutrema salsugineum, and Arabidopsis thaliana when exposed to different concentrations of Na+.

• Dr. Nisha Patwa, Postdoc (2024-2025)

• Dr. Pramod Pantha, Postdoc (2021-2024), Graduate student (2015-2021)

• Dr. Guannan Wang, Postdoc (2020-2023), Graduate student (2014-2020)

• Chathura Wijesinghage, Graduate student (2016-2022)

• Dr. Dong-Ha Oh, Research assistant professor (2013-2022)

• Dr. Kieu-Nga Tran, Postdoc (2021-2022), Graduate student (2016-2021)

• Dr. Narender Kumar, Postdoc (2015 - 2017) 

• Swati Tyagi, Lab manager (2015 - 2017) 

• Sandra DiTusa, Lab manager (2014-2015) 

• Dr. Subbaiah Chalivendra, Postdoc (2013 - 2014)

Past undergraduate students

• Nigel L LeBlanc - 2024-2025 (Biology Major)

• Anamaria Bao-Loc-Trung - 2023-2025 (Biology Major)

• Jackson L Kirn -  2023-2025 (President's Future Leaders Research Program, Biology Major,Biology Major)

• Luke Guidry -  2023-2025 (Biology Major)

• Sylvie Bonner - 2023-2025 (Biology Major)

• Nithya Santhosh - 2024 (Biology Major)

• Laura L Doan 2023-2024 (Biology Major)

• Hannah Holliday - 2023-2024 (Biology Major)

• Ayla Allen 2023-2024  (Biology Major)

• August R Antis - 2022-2023 (President's Future Leaders Research Program, Biology Major)

• Jason Garcia - 2019-2023 (Biochemistry major)

• Ashley Doan - 2019-2023 (Biology Major)

• August Steinkamp  - 2019-2023 (President's Future Leaders Research Program, Biology Major)

• Khadijah Taite - 2022-2022 (Biology Major)

• Saad Chaudhari- 2018-2022 (Pre-med, biochemistry major)

• Todd Thibodaux- 2018-2022 (Microbiology major)

• Megan Guilbeau--2018-2021 (President's Student Aid, Biology Major)

• Jordan Vivien-- 2016-2020 (President's Student Aid, Biology Major)

• Christine Tran -- 2017-2020 (Biology Major)

• Sravya Pochana- 2017-2018 (President's Student Aid, Biology Major)

• Cally Quick- 2017-2018 (President's Student Aid, Biology Major)

• Ashley Clement- 2017-2018 (Biology Major)

• Delaney Campagna- 2016-2018 (Biology Major)

• Lauren Taylor –2015 -2017, graduated Dec 2017 (Honors College; Chancellor's Aide; Biology Major)

• John Johnson –2014 – 2017, graduated May 2017 (Honors College; Chancellor's Aide; Biochemistry Major)

• Cameron Fleur –2015 -2017, graduated May 2017 (Biology Major)

• Harel Schwartzberg – 2017 Spring (Biology Major)

• Melody Salmanian - 2015-2017 (Honors College; Chancellor's Aide; Microbiology Major)

• Matthew Johnson –2014 -2016, graduated May 2016 (McNair Scholar; BIOL 3999; Biology Major)

• Madison Boudreaux – 2014 -2016, graduated May 2016 (BIOL 3999; Honors College; Chancellor's Aide; Biology Major)

• Blake Delacroix –2015 Fall- 2016 Fall (Honors College; Biochemistry Major)

• Trey Leiva –2016 Spring (Volunteer; Biology Major)

• Sadie Thompson –2016 Spring (Volunteer; Biology Major)

• Emily Asbury –2015 (BIOL 3999; Conservation Sciences Major)

• Vaibhav Rajora - 2015 Fall (Physics major)

• Kieu-Nga Tran – 2014-2015, graduated May 2015 (Biology Major)

• Ross Kelt – 2014 -2015, graduated May 2015 (Biology Major)

• Mary Bergeron- 2014 (Biology Major)

• Kendall Dicke – 2013 (Engineering Major)

• Stephanie Presedo (School of Veterinary Medicine)

• Thuy-Mai Nguyen – 2013 Fall, graduated December 2013 (Biology Major)

Visiting scholars

• Nicole Bisente  - Post-baccalaureate student 

• Jorge A Parada - Post-baccalaureate student 

• Michele F da Silva- University of Campinas (UNICAMP), Campinas, SP, Brazil ; Dissertation research; August, 2022

• Dr. Patrick Finnegan – University of Western Australia; Sabbatical research; Oct – December 2017

• Michelle Arland - Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel - Ph.D. advisee of Gidon Winters and Simon Barak; Dissertation research; Jun-Sep 2017

• Mariana Vargas Cruz - Univ. Est de Campinas, Brazil - Ph.D. advisee of Anete Pereira de Souza; Dissertation research; Feb – August, 2016

• Gil Eshel – Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel - Ph.D. advisee of Simon Barak; Dissertation research; Jan-Feb 2016